What's next after the Valley of Death? – PolyU and Fudan offer tailored training for experienced entrepreneurs

It is a popular myth that the first steps of entrepreneurship are fraught with risk, and then the rest of the journey is smooth sailing. Once the start-up has survived for two to three stormy years, or hits its first pot of gold – so the myth goes – everything will be fine.

That is not true, of course. Last week (June 27 - July 1), 30 entrepreneurs whose start-ups are three to seven years old attended five full days of workshops at Polytechnic University (PolyU). From August 22 to 26 they will gather again, at Fudan University in Shanghai, for five more days of training.

These entrepreneurs – 15 each from Shanghai and Hong Kong – were taking part in the High Potential Entrepreneurial Leadership Programme jointly organised by PolyU and Fudan University. They came from diverse business areas ranging from hardware innovation to mobile apps to environmental science.

It turns out that seeking new models for business growth, optimising team structures and creating the right company culture are very common problems in start-up leadership, according to Raymond Chu, assistant director, entrepreneurship and commercialisation at PolyU's Institute for Entrepreneurship (IFE).

“Start-ups have different priorities at different stages. Launching their product and raising funds successfully is not a guarantee of long-term success,” he said. “The right attitude should be to stay humble and to continue to learn.”